Issue - meetings

The Council is recommended to make the resolutions set out in the report at item 3.

At the invitation of the Mayor Councillor Macleod moved the recommendations of the Standards and General Purposes Committee, duly seconded by Cllr Robini.

Councillor Goodridge expressed his view that none of the business, save for the appointment of the Interim Joint Chief Executive, was extraordinary and could instead have been taken to an Ordinary meeting. Clarification was then sought from the Monitoring Officer as to whether the second extraordinary meeting had been correctly convened and whether the entirety of Appendix 1 received by the Standards and General Purposes Committee should have been included for debate.

The Monitoring Officer clarified that the second extraordinary meeting had been correctly convened and the items of business on the agenda were subject to the resolution of Council on the recommendation before Members, should that recommendation be carried it would take immediate effect, enabling all of the business of the second extraordinary meeting to be considered. Secondly, at the Standards and General Purposes Committee only Council Procedure Rule 3.2 had been recommended to Council for approval, whilst the residual matters would be encompassed within the entire proposed revised Council Procedure Rules to be received by the Standards and General Purposes Committee in April.

·       Councillors Follows spoke in endorsement of the proposal which provided a pragmatic approach to discharging business in the current year. Consideration would subsequently be given to increasing the number of Ordinary Council meetings in the calendar of meetings for 2024/25.

·       Councillor Kiehl stated that a revised calendar of Ordinary meetings for future years would help Councillors with caring responsibilities to plan their attendance in advance.

·       Councillor Martin was concerned about the increased number of Extraordinary meetings in recent years, but would reluctantly support the recommendation.

·       Councillor Hyman acknowledged the concerns expressed by Councillor Goodridge but would support the recommendation as a necessity to discharge business.

·       Councillors Clark and Townsend both spoke in support of the recommendation and commented that the constitution should enable business to be considered, rather than delayed to the next Ordinary meeting.

Councillor Macleod exercised his right of reply to thank Members for their debate and observed that should the recommendation not be carried then the next Ordinary meeting of the Council would be in April.

Upon being put to the vote, Council RESOLVED unanimously:

That existing Council Procedure Rule 3.2 be replaced by new Council Procedure Rule 3.2 – ‘The only items of business which will be considered at extraordinary meetings of the Council will be the items for which the meeting has been called’  for adoption into the constitution with immediate effect.

The Committee is recommended to make the resolutions set out in the report at agenda item 11.

The Executive Head of Legal and Democratic Services addressed the Committee and introduced the report and the proposed revision of the Council Procedure Rule No. 3.2: ‘Extraordinary Meetings’ with the revisions detailed in Appendix 1. It was noted that officers and the JCRG were currently undergoing work to review the remainder of The Council Procedure Rules in sections and recommendations/outcomes from the JCRG regarding these are due to be brought forward to the Committee in March, however Procedure Rule 3 was expedited due to its urgency. The Head of Service explained that changes to the Council Procedure Rule No.3.2: Extraordinary Meetings set out in appendix 1 would provide more flexibility in calling Extraordinary meetings and would remove the current restriction of confining the agenda to a single item. It was explained that the amendment would allow for multiple items on the agenda for Extraordinary meetings of the Council.

The Committee endorsed the amended Council Procedure Rule 3.2: Extraordinary Meetings of Council as detailed in Appendix 1 and no further comments were made.

There was a unanimous vote in favour of the recommendations set out in part 2 of the report.

The Committee therefore resolved to recommend that Full Council;

1.     approves the amended Council Procedure Rule No. 3.2 - Extraordinary Meetings of the Council, as set out in Appendix 1, for adoption into the Waverley Borough Constitution with immediate effect.